


on creance

by micromys



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2019-11-05 06:55:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17913959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/micromys/pseuds/micromys
Summary: Learning how to fly on your own isn't a painless venture. There are some stumbles, and crashes, and growing pains.But there is also love, and adventure, and hope, and they'll get there in the end. Together.A post HTTYD 3 series, focusing on Hiccup and Astrid as they take the next steps in their life on New Berk. Rating will change.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HTTYD as a trilogy is very dear to me. I've wanted to contribute to the fandom since the first film, but everything coming to an end has finally prompted me into it. Of course, it's not the end for the fandom -- and I hope some of you would like to come along with me! 
> 
> I am a falconer, and 'on creance' is a falconry term -- when you first start flying young raptors (or ones just new to the experience), you do so on a long lead called a creance so that they can stay safe and not get into trouble while they learn. It's an adjustment period before they are flying on their own. It just felt appropriate, I suppose.

_Oh the comfort of feeling safe  
with a person;  
having neither to weigh thoughts,  
nor measure words,  
but to pour them all out  
just as chaff and grain together,  
knowing that a faithful hand  
will take and sift them,  
keeping what is worth keeping  
and with a breath of kindness,  
blow the rest away._

— George Eliot

The first few nights were the hardest.

Having to adjust to being alone after having someone always at your side was harder than losing a limb — and Hiccup would know, thank you very much. He had always known, subconsciously, that he had involved Toothless in almost everything in his life. He slept curled up beside him, chatted with him as he worked through his ideas and plans, threw his prosthetic for him to play with while he charted his map, shared bits of his meals (and guarded other bits from a questing dragon tongue), gathered his scales and saliva while building and inventing. Everything, _everything_ Hiccup had ever considered assumed Toothless as a factor. It was a simple constant of his existence.

And then, in the course of a day, that had all changed.

Hiccup turned over restlessly in his bedroll for the thousandth time that night. It wasn’t unusual for his brain to refuse to shut up, but usually his dragon’s deep even breathing helped settle his thoughts enough to allow sleep to creep in. Now, there was just quiet, aside from the normal nighttime insects and occasional snores of sleeping Vikings. 

The recent ordeal had taken both a physical and emotional toll on everyone. After watching the horizon until their dragons could no longer be seen, not even as specks, there was a displaced village to see to. Hiccup had been unable to tear his eyes away from where his best friend had disappeared, even after the others had, but he was aware enough to hear Astrid softly but firmly instructing their people to gather all the discarded equipment and head back to the site of New Berk. 

When the hustle and bustle had died down, he had felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, and had allowed Astrid to help him limp along to his makeshift workstation, where he set himself on a stump and methodically gathered together his things, trying not to linger too long on leftover black scales and tools with conspicuous bite marks in them. After sifting through piles of gadgetry and half-finished inventions, Astrid brought him one of his earlier prosthetics that he had been using to test possible improvements on. He gave her an absentminded kiss in thanks, and set about making the adjustments needed for it to be workable again. It helped, having something to do with his hands. 

It was only when he overheard someone asking Valka what they should do with the dragon gear, and her soft response — _dismantle it, the materials will be useful in the rebuilding_ — that he stood abruptly and made his way over to his tent, as quickly as he could while trying to not look like he was running away in front of his people.

It had been the right call to let them go. He _knew_ that. It was just… the right call usually felt better than this.

Hiccup huffed and flopped over onto his other side, staring at the wall of his tent as though it could provide him with answers. 

It was when he was halfway through a wildly improbable imagining of moving the entire village down the waterfall and into the Hidden World to live with the dragons that he felt someone’s arm come around him, and a warm body press against his back. 

When he startled, a dear and familiar voice shushed him. “It’s okay. It’s just me.”

“Astrid.” He relaxed back into the embrace, bringing one of his hands to rest on her arm. “Not that I’m not happy to see you — or, well, feel you — but what are you doing here?”

“I’ve been listening to you toss and turn all night. My tent is right next to yours, you know.” 

A sudden pang of guilt. “Ah… sorry. Didn’t know I was keeping you up.”

He felt her shoulders rise and fall behind him in a small shrug. “I mean, you weren’t really. I wasn’t exactly having a lot of success falling asleep anyway.” Her arm tightened around him a little. “This might be a stupid question… but are you okay?”

What come out of his mouth should have been a laugh, but instead warped into a sort of croak. “I— yeah. I’m fine. Of course I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

There was the sudden press of teeth into his shoulder. “ _Hiccup._ ”

“What! What? Just because I keep opening my eyes and expecting him to be there, that doesn’t — it’s not like Dad, he’s not _dead_. He’s fine, he’s good, he’s safe, he’s happy. He’s happy and I’m happy. Just like I’m supposed to be. Okay?”

Astrid sighed, and moved her mouth to brush a kiss to the back of his neck. “It’s okay that it’s hard for you, you know.”

He blew out a sharp breath, and didn’t respond.

She was quiet for a bit, giving him the opportunity to speak, before breaking the silence again. “…I keep trying to talk to Stormfly before I realize she isn’t there. I keep staring at the sky and thinking about how I’ll never be up in it again. I _loved_ our dragons, Hiccup. I know it’s not the same as what you and Toothless had, but it’s not easy for me, either.”

When she went to retract her arms from around his waist, he grabbed at them, holding her in place. She was fully capable of pulling out of his grasp, and they both knew it, but she didn’t, waiting. 

“…I know. I’m sorry. I just— I’m sorry.” Hiccup waited for her to relax again, curling against his back, before continuing. “You’re right. As usual. I guess I’m a little jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“You always seem to be able to… put things behind you. A lot better than I can. I’m supposed to be Chief, and yet I was standing there useless while you and Mom took care of everything. What kind of a Chief am I supposed to be now, anyway? The village I became Chief of… it’s going to be completely different now. I don’t know if I can be the Chief they need.”

He may not have been able to see her, but her tone was deeply unimpressed. “Being Chief doesn’t mean not having feelings, Hiccup. And, I mean… our life with the dragons, it was important to all of us, but it was your dream. You made it happen. Nobody blames you for being upset.” She let out a soft breath, and her voice gentled a little. “As for me, I… distract myself by being busy. It doesn’t mean I’m past it. I just… put it aside to deal with later.”

He lifted her hands to press a kiss to her knuckles, and felt her responding smile against his neck. “And don’t worry about the village. You’ll do fine, and we’ll _be_ fine. You’ve met every challenge that’s come your way so far, and I really don’t think we’re going to get anything worse than Drago and Grimmel. We’ve _all_ changed, Hiccup. It wasn’t just the place. We’re all different now. And you know,” a pointed squeeze, “even if you don’t have Toothless, you’re not doing this alone.”

This time when he tried to laugh, his vocal cords obeyed him. “Yeah. Yeah, I know. It just… happened so fast.”

A thoughtful hum. “Well, I mean. It’s not like we’re going to stop dealing with dragons right away.”

What? He lifted his head a little, looking back over his shoulder at her. “Huh?”

Blue eyes blinked back at him, bright even in the dark. “There are still those trappers out there. Were you just going to leave them alone? And I doubt all of the dragons in the archipelago are going to get the news at once. We’re going to have to keep an eye out for them until they all figure it out. And I bet some of the captive dragons are injured… so we’ll need to treat them before they make the journey. Some might even have trouble flying, like Toothless, so you might need to make—”

Her voice cut off in a yelp as Hiccup suddenly flipped over in her arms, raining ecstatic kisses all over her face. “Astrid. Astrid, Astrid, Astrid. Where would I be without you?”

“Dead,” she muttered, wrinkling her nose under the sudden onslaught.

Hiccup let out a hoarse chuckle. “Yeah. I mean, was kind of looking for something a bit more romantic, but. True.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “I thought you didn’t associate me with romance.”

He put a hand on his chest in a dramatic gesture. “Milady, your romance is the _only_ one I want to associate with.”

That earned him an eye-roll, but also a grudging smile as Astrid responded to the improvement in his mood. Then a shadow crossed her face, only noticeable because he could read her so well. Hiccup gave her a questioning look before leaning down to kiss the furrow in her brow. “What is it?”

She heaved a sigh. “Hiccup, I know you’re excited about still working with dragons, but we can’t… we can’t _keep_ any of them.”

Hiccup groaned and dropped his face into her shoulder. “Believe me, I _know._ ”

Astrid threaded her fingers into his hair, finding all the little braids that were now largely frayed from the day’s scuffles and gently undoing them. “Okay. Just making sure.” 

Every so often she brushed her nails lightly against his scalp, sending pleasurable little shivers down his spine. “…Are you going back to your tent tonight?”

“Nope.” 

Great. Perfect. 

Hiccup relaxed into her, and let his mind drift, lulled into contentment by the rhythmic motions of her hands. He should have realized earlier, honestly. Just because Astrid didn’t admit to it, it didn’t mean she wasn’t also feeling the loss of the lifestyle she had become so accustomed to. 

In a rare moment of vulnerability in their early relationship, she had confided to Hiccup that she hadn’t counted on a long life. It’s true that few in the village got to experience such a thing, when the dragon raids were a regular occurrence. Astrid hadn’t been a target of mockery, like Hiccup had, but she still didn’t have people she had really considered friends. Her sense of duty was too strong, and their group of peers had taken their training less than seriously. She had focused on becoming as strong as she could, and defending the village as best she could, and had accepted the likely consequences that came with it.

Hiccup had seen meeting Toothless and integrating the dragons into the village as the start of a kind of life he never knew he wanted. It hadn’t occurred to him that Astrid, the rising star of Berk, might have felt the same way. But over five years of being with her had taught him that presuming things about people worked about as often as presuming things about dragons did. Without the pressure on her shoulders to become a killer to defend her village against a threat that would likely eventually kill her too, Astrid had… brightened. 

_I am the person I am today because of you. I never told you that, but it’s true._

Her strength and skills were only enhanced by the challenges that came with training dragons, but smiles also came more readily to her, and she moved less like she was carrying an invisible burden on her shoulders. She thrived with every new adventure, learning new things not just for survival, but for the thrill of it. Astrid had seemed _happy._

And Hiccup wanted to make sure that never changed, with or without dragons. 

Even if the thought of _without_ still stung mercilessly. 

“Astrid?” 

“Mm?”

He almost said _be honest_ , but there was no need. Astrid was always honest.

“Do you think it’ll ever happen? You know, that the world will… change enough.”

He didn’t have to specify for what. Astrid’s fingers had stilled in his hair, and Hiccup tried to wait patiently while she gathered her thoughts. 

“…No.”

If his shoulders could have slumped, they would have. As it was, he must have shown some kind of reaction, because she began rubbing small circles into his back. 

“But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying for it. I mean, there have been a lot of things that I thought were impossible that turned out not to be.” She punctuated that statement with a light pinch at his side, which made him jump a little. “You should know that.”

He curled his fingers in her light sleeping tunic, and breathed in the fall of her hair. “Yeah, but we’ve already failed at it.”

“ _We_ haven’t failed at anything,” she replied sharply. “It’s the rest of the world that didn’t get the message. But we’re only one village, Hiccup. Still, we could change. If we could… then other places could. It’s just… not feasible right now.”

“Then when _will_ it be?”

Astrid grabbed his chin a little roughly and angled his face up so she could see it. “Are you seriously trying to get me to talk _you_ out of trying for this?”

“No!” He yelped, although it came out more like ‘nuu’ due to her grip on his jaw. “I just wanted you to tell me I’m being stupid.”

“What?”

“Dumb idea, I know. You never tell me anything just because I want you to.”

That seemed to take her aback a bit, and she loosened her hold. “Hiccup…”

“No, no,” he hastened to assure her. “It’s a good thing. I promise.”

“It didn’t _sound_ like a good thing.”

“It is, though. You’re pretty much the only person I can count on for that. …Or, well, the only person whose opinion makes sense, anyway.”

She ‘hmphed’ a little, and Hiccup couldn’t resist leaning down, nudging his nose against hers and then brushing their mouths together in a silent plea. Despite her feigned indignation, Astrid responded willingly, opening up to him. They spent several tranquil moments exchanging slow, drawn out kisses — the kind that served to simply exalt in the comfort of long established affection. He would have never in his wildest dreams have guessed as a kid that he would have ever be in this position, with _Astrid Hofferson_ of all people, without becoming a nervous awkward wreck. Instead, there was only warmth and tenderness and _peace_. When he pulled back, the adoration must have been clear on his face, because Astrid’s expression changed into the one of fond amusement that she reserved only for him. 

Unable to resist, he leaned down to press a final lingering kiss to her forehead. “I’m not going to stop trying,” he whispered. “I’m not sure how, but I’ll figure it out.”

“ _We’ll_ figure it out,” she corrected, and Hiccup couldn’t help but smile, suddenly overwhelmed with affection and gratitude. “But first, we’ve got a village to build. Winter’s not gonna wait for us to be ready.”

“Oh yes, _that’s_ very heartening, Astrid. Thank you.”

She grinned back at him, and when her hands guided his head back to rest under her chin, Hiccup went willingly. “We’ll make it, Hiccup. We will.”

As his eyelids grew heavy and he lost himself in the steady rise and fall of her breathing, the last coherent thought that went through his mind was that when she said ‘we’, she didn’t just mean the village.

_All of us._

 

The sky was already beginning to lighten with the dawn when Astrid felt Hiccup’s breath finally even out into sleep, as his ever-racing mind finally gave in to exhaustion. She dozed lightly, listening to the sounds of the village starting to come awake. 

She knew it wouldn’t be long before someone came looking for their Chief, and sure enough, the tent flap was pushed aside slightly, letting in a beam of sunlight. Astrid had lifted a hand automatically to cover Hiccup’s eyes to keep him from waking, and was relieved to find it was Valka, of all people, who had come to find them. She lifted her other hand and brought a finger to her lips, glancing down at the sleeping young Chief and then back up to his mother. 

Valka looked just as tired as her son, with defined circles under her eyes and a marked weariness draped over her shoulders that Astrid hadn’t seen since the loss of Stock. But of course, it would hit Valka harder than almost all of them — after all, dragons had been her only company for almost two decades, and she had been with Cloudjumper for many years before Hiccup had even met Toothless. And yet, when it had been time to say goodbye, she had not hesitated to remain beside her son and bid farewell to her closest companion. That choice, combined with the small, knowing nod that Valka gave her before slipping quietly back outside to give her son the chance to get the rest she wouldn’t allow herself, melted away whatever small remaining bitterness may have been left in Astrid’s heart on the behalf of a young misfit who had needed his mom. 

He had her now, and he had Astrid, and for now Astrid would run her fingers through his hair and guard his hard-sought rest for as long as she could manage.

Reality could wait a bit longer.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it was brought up in a comment last chapter -- yes, the rating is subject to change. I will make a note of it when it does!

_There comes the strangest moment in your life,  
when everything you thought before breaks free—  
what you relied upon, as ground-rule and as rite   
looks upside down from how it used to be._

_Your heart’s in retrograde. You simply have no choice.  
Things people told you turn out to be true.   
You have to hold that body, hear that voice.   
You’d have sworn no one knew you more than you.  
   
How many people thought you’d never change?   
But here you have. It’s beautiful. It’s strange._

\-- Kate Light

 

“So the gates should go… right about here.” Astrid set her finger down on the map that was spread out on the table, dimly lit by the flickering candlelight. 

Hiccup blinked at her, bewildered. “Gates? What gates?” 

She stared back at him, nonplussed. “We need gates, Hiccup. Especially if we’re only going to have one way to get to the sea for Odin knows how long. We _need_ to be able to close it off in case anyone attacks us while we’re vulnerable.”

“Astrid’s right,” Eret murmured from the other side of the table, where he stood beside Valka and Gobber. “News is going to get around about the loss of Berk, and the lack of dragons. We don’t want to leave ourselves open to opportunists. And believe me, there are plenty of those.”

Hiccup sighed, rubbing his hand over his hair as he stared down at the rudimentary drawing of New Berk. In some ways, they had been very lucky in their sudden new home. The isle had plenty of timber, fresh water and small game. There were no large predators to threaten their sheep, and the steep cliffs meant that invasion was unlikely — but it also had, for the moment, cut them off from the sea entirely. For Vikings, that was simply unacceptable. Thus, the first order of business was to carve a pathway down to the water so that they could resume fishing and trading (and dragon saving, though he hadn’t mentioned that out loud to anyone but Astrid as of yet) as quickly as possible.

He picked up the stick of charcoal and marked the spot Astrid had indicated, near the top of the proposed trail. “Okay, a gate. Sure, that’s simple enough. Can you get people on that, Gobber?”

“Aye, sure,” his longtime mentor responded, stroking idly at his mustache. “Big an’ sturdy, like usual. The pathway’ll have to be measured first, though. Otherwise it won’t be sized right.” 

Hiccup glanced up at his mother. “You sure this is the best place for it to go?”

“The best place that isn’t too far from the village, yes.” Valka leaned over, pointing to another place on the opposite coast. “This one isn’t bad either, but it’s too far for everyday use. Cloudjumper and I circled the whole place before looking for the armada. I remember it because I thought Grimmel might try to use it, if he were planning a siege. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that.” 

Her voice only wavered slightly on the dragon’s name, and Hiccup wondered if he had been the only one to notice. He took a moment to look her over, recognizing the signs of grief and want of sleep that were carved into his own bones. The lack of response caught her attention, and she turned to meet his eyes. Hiccup tilted his head a little at her, questioning, and Valka responded with a small upturn of her lips and a reassuring nod that was little more than a quick bob of her head.

The sound of a throat clearing broke the silence, and they both turned to Astrid, who was watching them with an odd look that seemed caught halfway between sadness and amusement. 

“What?” 

She opened her mouth to respond, but then appeared to reconsider. “We’ll need a gate there, too,” she finally stated. Hiccup narrowed his eyes at her, fully intending to get the truth out of her later. She just shrugged.

Valka’s smile deepened a little with fondness as she looked at the girl. “Yes, eventually,” she agreed. “For now, it’s not a priority, I think. No one will be able to be there long enough without one of your patrols noticing.”

Hiccup didn’t miss how Astrid preened a little at the implied praise, and made a mental note to find some way to thank her for all the work she’d been doing to secure their new home. It had certainly made his job easier.

“Well,” Gobber interrupted, stretching his arms over his head, “I don’t know about all of you, but I’m starving and I don’t intend to wait until all the best bits are gone.”

“It’s too late to do much else today,” Astrid conceded. “Let’s go eat.”

The others began to file out of the house, one of the few that was almost fully completed (being head of the village had _some_ perks) and when Hiccup lingered over the map, Astrid took the charcoal away from him pointedly. “That means you too, Chief.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, pausing to run his thumb over her cheek and then stifling a laugh at the sooty mark it left behind. She rolled her eyes, realizing immediately what had happened, and raised her arm to rub at her face with the back of her hand. 

“You’re making it worse. Hang on.” Hiccup licked the thumb on his clean hand, and reached over to rub away the dark streaks on her skin. She allowed it with only a slight wrinkle of her nose, and when he was satisfied with his work he affectionately butted his forehead against her temple, nuzzling in a little before pulling away.

When he met her eyes again, that same look was back. “What is it?”

She blinked. “What is what?”

“You’re giving me that look again. The same one you did with mom.”

“Oh,” she shrugged, turning for the door. “It’s nothing.”

“Astriiiid.”

“Later, Hiccup. Let’s get some food before it’s cold.”

 

The Great Hall was currently neither great nor a hall, really, but that didn't appear to matter much to everyone currently gathered. There were plenty of tables, some old and some hurriedly put together, and enticing smells drifted from several cauldrons of simmering meat and fresh loaves of bread. Someone had even managed to scrounge some fresh berries from the woods which served as an unexpected treat for dessert. The mood was fairly jovial, given the situation — although everyone missed the presence of the dragons, it seemed that having a monumental task ahead of them actually helped to keep them from dwelling too much.

Vikings always felt better when they had something to hit, and apparently a hammer worked just as well as an axe.

When he was younger, he would have to purposefully join others at a table if he didn’t want to eat alone. Now, however, wherever he sat, people migrated to him automatically. Some included Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the twins — a group of friends brought together more by age than anything else, although they had deepened their bond over the years. There are only so many near-death scenarios you can find yourself in with another person before they start meaning something to you, after all. Then there was Eret, who gravitated to Hiccup and Astrid on a regular basis because they seemed to be the most _sane_ , as far as Hooligans went. 

And then, of course, there were all the rest — anyone and everyone who had something to say to their Chief. And on Berk, that was most people. Berkians were not shy about their opinions, even to their leader… _especially_ to their leader. Of course, they weren’t shy about their praise, either, and Hiccup couldn’t decide if that made things more or less awkward. He liked knowing that his people were pleased by the things he’d done, but he wasn’t as much of a fan of the… more _traditional_ Viking celebrations. (One would think that after so much time spent in the air, his stomach would be immune to the effects of being tossed about from person to person. Apparently not.)

Luckily, Astrid usually claimed her spot next to him at the table, and if anyone got too belligerent or pushy, all it took was a well placed glare or a casual spin of her axe before most people got the hint and moved their conversation elsewhere. 

‘Most people’ definitely excluded the pair that suddenly made their presence known with a loud clattering of bowls, sitting so abruptly that the entire table shook.

“Illustrious leader!” Tuffnut exclaimed, leaning over so far that his ‘beard’ almost dragged into his bowl of stew. “I have made the most _extraordinary_ find. So extraordinary, in fact, that I have spared you the effort of having to declare it named after me. As you, of course, would—“

“You _fell into it_ ,” his sister piped up from next to him, scowling. “That doesn’t count as finding it! I saw it first!”

“Hello Tuff, Ruff,” Hiccup sighed. “Just what is it that you’ve found?”

“A hot spring!” Fishlegs interrupted, having suddenly appeared behind them. “Can you believe it? We got _really_ lucky with this place, Hiccup! Don’t you think so?”

“Hey!” The twins chorused. “You ruined it!” “Yeah, thanks a lot, Fishbreath!”

“Huh, I _thought_ Tuffnut smelled a bit better than usual,” Astrid commented idly.

“What?” Tuffnut exclaimed, suddenly burying his face into his armpit. “No! My manly musk!”

“Wow,” said Hiccup. “That’s… actually, that _is_ good news. Thanks, guys. Is it far?”

“Not too far,” answered Fishlegs, taking the seat on his other side. “It’s kind of steep getting to it, though—“

“Which is how I fell in!”

“—so we might want to build some stairs or something.”

“Oh! Yes! And then we can put my name on the stairs, so everyone knows _just_ who discovered it.”

“I dunno, Tuffnut. I mean, it’s part of the island, and you didn’t discover the whole place—“

“And I already said being stupid and falling down the mountain into the spring doesn’t count—“

Hiccup tuned out the argument with the ease of long practice, and turned his attention to his food. When he was finished eating, he glanced over at Astrid, who was looking over the gathering and seemingly going down a checklist in her mind, making sure everything was at rights before calling it a night. He nudged her gently, and together they stood and made their way out into the dark, back to Hiccup’s new home. 

Astrid had returned to sleeping in her own tent after the first night, but that changed when the third morning came where she arose to find Hiccup blearily working on a project in the weak dawn light, hair and clothes disheveled and deep circles under his eyes. When she walked up, the tool in his hand slipped and he cursed and pulled his arm away, nursing an injured finger. She had promptly marched him back to his bed, ignoring his protestations, and firmly instructed everyone nearby to let her know if he tried to leave. Which, he didn’t, thank you.

…Okay, he didn’t after the second time, when Gobber and Eret had hauled him back and threatened to set the twins as his guards for the day. Honestly, no respect. His ire had been soothed when Astrid reappeared that evening with dinner, and she had been spending the night with him ever since.

She sat on a stool in his newly built house, removing her boots and leathers in order to change into sleeping clothes. Hiccup did the same, also taking the time to unhook his prosthetic and set it next to the bed. He didn’t always sleep without it — he liked to be able to get up quickly, especially when there were potential dangers — but after that first night he had been horrified to find a long red gouge down Astrid’s calf. She had shrugged it away, hardly even noticing, but now he kept it off for his own peace of mind. 

He sat on the edge of the bed and watched as she took her hair down, going to brush it out before pulling it over her shoulder to put it into a loose sleeping braid. Her hair shone wheaten-gold in the candlelight, and he found himself entranced by how the shadows played off of her slightly turned up nose, the smooth curve of her cheek, the blue of her eyes. 

Oh, how he had always been drawn to the sky.

When she lifted a hand to pick up the leather cord in preparation for braiding, he cleared his throat, making her look over at him. He held out a hand in a pleading gesture. “May I?”

She blinked at his hand, then at him, and smiled softly. “Sure.” 

Astrid was fond of messing with his hair, as the multiple braids currently in it attested… but Hiccup found he enjoyed hers, too. She usually wouldn’t allow him to do the more complicated braids she sometimes favored, but at night it really didn’t matter. It was the act that he enjoyed more than the actual result. And it was also a side of Astrid that no one else got to see — her armor off, her hair down, looking deceptively soft and languid with drowsiness. 

She got up and came over to the bed, depositing the cord into his hand before folding her legs beneath herself on the furs. As he took her hair into his hands, he reflected on how easy it was, now… having Astrid in his home, in his bed. They were no longer teenagers, alternatively excited and frightened by every new show of affection, every accidental (and not-so-accidental) brush of skin. Their parents were no longer looming over their shoulders, pressing them with lessons on “responsibility” and “decent behavior”. 

In fact, the entire village actually seemed pleased that they had effectively moved in together. They held the most power and respect on Berk, and as far as most people were concerned, it was only a matter of time until they were married. Even his _mother_ was unbothered, although she was hardly a conventional parent. If Astrid’s parents minded, she gave no indication. Then again, she had never let anyone stop her from making the decisions she thought were best. For all he knew, they might have just given up.

It wasn’t like they had been intimate since the move, anyway. There had just been… too much, and any sleep they could grab was precious. She hadn’t voiced any dissatisfaction, but still, he resolved to one day soon make more time for just them. The springs that Tuff had ‘found’ sounded promising, and they were surely due a break sometime soon. 

He parted the silken strands into three sections before beginning to braid, pulling just tightly enough that the pattern would hold but not be too tight on her scalp while she slept. 

“So… does this count as ‘later’, yet?”

“Hmm?” Her eyelids had drifted closed under his ministrations, and she roused herself back into wakefulness.

“That look you were giving me and mom. You said you’d tell me later.” 

“I don’t remember anything about saying I’d _tell_ you,” she murmured, looking away. 

Hiccup said nothing, knowing his silence would indicate his seriousness to her more than anything else. Finally, she sighed. “Hiccup, it’s really not important.”

“If it’s not important, then why not tell me?”

“Because…” she trailed off, and then lifted her gaze to meet his. “I just don’t want to make you sad.”

His heart stuttered, painfully. “Sad? What— how could you make me _sad_?” 

“No, no—“ one of her hands settled on his arm, soothing. “Stop. I told you, it’s not bad!”

Hiccup took in a deep breath, forcing himself to calm. “Well, okay, now you _have_ to tell me. Just for that.”

“…Okay, okay.” She dropped her hand back into her lap, seemingly gathering her thoughts. “It’s just… you and your mom, sometimes… you kind of act like dragons. Especially her, but lately you’ve been starting to do it more too.”

O… kay. That was unexpected. “Act… like dragons?”

In response, Astrid simply leaned forward, slowly enough to give him time to move his hands with her. She turned her head, nuzzling into his temple in the same way he had done to her earlier, before pulling back and watching him carefully.

“I… never realized,” he muttered, focusing on tying the leather cord around the end of her braid to keep his hands from shaking. 

He felt the soft pressure of her hand on his knee. “I told you it’s not bad, Hiccup. It’s just something I noticed.” 

“Yeah, well,” he shrugged, ducking his head. “That’s something I should probably stop doing, huh.” 

“What?” She leaned forward, trying to catch his eye. “Why? Hiccup, we’re _dragon people_ , remember?”

He snorted, biting his lip at the sudden wave of grief. “Right. Dragon people with no dragons.”

Astrid caught his chin in her hand, making him face her. “We’ll _always_ be dragon people. Haven’t you been paying attention? Ever since you called us that, everyone’s been doing it — they’ve been using it more than Hooligans! We’re _proud_ of it!”

“Wait, they have?”

“Yes! And all the new houses—“ she waved a hand towards the door, “they’ve got dragons all _over_. Hiccup, we’re still _us_. I didn’t not mention it to you because I thought you should stop doing it. I just didn’t mention it because I didn’t want to remind you that they’re… you know, not here.”

He gave her a wry smile, covering her hand on his leg with his own. “Believe me, Astrid. I never _forget_ that.” 

She exhaled deeply, and then leaned forward and brought her arms around his neck, pulling him in close. “I know.”

He returned the embrace, taking a moment to just bask in the comfort of her presence, before nudging her playfully. “Hey, at least you know I’m not fully dragon yet. Because if I was, I wouldn’t have used my hand.”

She pulled back a little, looking puzzled. “Used it for what?”

“For _this_!” He quickly ducked in and licked a stripe up her cheek, eliciting a small shriek of surprise. 

_”Hiccup!”_

He couldn’t help himself and burst into giggles, leaning back against the headboard. Astrid rubbed at her cheek vigorously, looking highly indignant, which only made him laugh harder.

He heard a “hmph” and felt the thump as she flopped next to him on the bed. When he turned to face her, there was a smile on her face instead of the expected scowl. “…What?” He asked, still a bit out of breath.

“Nothing,” she returned automatically. “It’s just… it’s good to hear you laugh.”

His breath hitched, and he realized… it had been some time since he’d felt like this. It made him almost guilty, to be able to find such joy with Toothless gone, but a small voice in the back of his head reminded him that that wasn’t fair to either of them. He wished his best friend was feeling the same way.

“Does that mean I can lick you whenever I want?”

She shoved him away. “Don’t even think about it!”

“At least my spit isn’t as sticky as a dragon’s,” he continued, ignoring her eye-roll. “A lot less useful for paint, though.”

“Hiccup, _ugh_.” 

“I can’t say I’ve really tried to use it yet, though—“

Astrid groaned and rolled over so that her back was to him. “I am going to _sleep._ ” 

“I think there are some plants that increase saliva production, maybe if I chewed—“

“ _Good night,_ Hiccup.”

Still laughing under his breath, Hiccup stood and quickly hopped over the the table on one foot to blow the candle out. He carefully maneuvered back and curled around her, wrapping an arm around her waist and nudging his knees behind hers. She didn’t tense or pull away, so he pressed a kiss behind her ear and whispered “I adore you,” into her hair.

Astrid didn’t open her eyes, but she did shift back into his chest, and slid one of her legs between his. “Sleep.”

“Yes, milady.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I did not expect to get this out in a week. Honestly, the only reason I did was because of all the encouragement I got -- so thank you so much to everyone who kudosed and commented. Never think that your feedback doesn't have an effect, because you're what motivated me when I was staring at the screen hating every word I wrote, haha.
> 
> I am sorry about the short chapters, I hope to make the next ones longer. I also keep getting distracted by my plans for farther in the future, especially with the kids, and I have to make myself handle one chapter at a time. 
> 
> Anyway, next chapter -- they get back to the ocean, and shit starts to gets real. What can I say, gotta make my favorite characters suffer a bit.


	3. Chapter 3

_Look upward where the white gull screams,  
What does it see that we do not see?  
Is that a star? or the lamp that gleams  
On some outward voyaging argosy, –  
Ah! can it be  
We have lived our lives in a land of dreams!  
How sad it seems._

_Sweet, there is nothing left to say  
But this, that love is never lost,  
Keen winter stabs the breasts of May  
Whose crimson roses burst his frost,  
Ships tempest-tossed  
Will find a harbour in some bay,  
And so we may._

— Oscar Wilde

 

The ships that the dragons had brought onto the isle were in good condition, but too unwieldy to be carried to the ocean through the relatively narrow new passage. To fix this, Gobber instructed that the ships be taken apart in sections and then reassembled on the beach. It took some extra work, but certainly less than building entirely new ones would. The entire village celebrated when the first fishing boats came back with a plentiful catch, and the feasting that night had been even more raucous than normal.

Hiccup had more pressing things on his mind.

He wanted to start searching for the remaining dragons right away. Gobber disagreed, stating that the first priority should be returning to the site of Old Berk and gathering supplies from what they’d had to leave behind. 

“We’ll need all the help we can come winter,” he argued. “Anything we can pick up from our old home is something we don’t have to spend time finding or making _here_.”

“But we _will_ survive winter without them,” Hiccup returned. “The dragons might not be so lucky.”

“When news of the dragons leaving spreads, the trappers will double down,” Valka said, backing him up. “It’ll be a race to see who can find the remaining dragons first. We can’t let it be them.”

“But we don’t even know where the trappers _are_ right now,” interjected Eret. “And we don’t have the ships to spare to search the entire archipelago. We can’t scout from the air like we used to.”

In the end, Astrid was the tiebreaker. 

“The village has to come first,” she murmured, hand gentle on Hiccup’s arm. “Besides, there might be some there. A lot of dragons knew Berk as a safe place. We could run into them on the way.”

Hiccup knew, as Chief, that he could override the decision. But he also knew that this was one instance in which he _didn’t_ want to emulate his father. The plan made sense. So he listened, and agreed, even if it made his heart constrict in his chest.

The took several large ships with their most fighting fit, knowing that looters might have descended on the abandoned village and needing to be ready to defend themselves if necessary. The half-built new settlement would be safe enough, for now — Grimmel was the only enemy that had known of its location, and most other ships would pass by the island without ever realizing it was inhabited. Gobber had seen to the installation of the gate at the top of the path, and it could be closed at any time at the sign of impending threats. 

Hiccup wasn’t on any of the larger ships. Instead, he remained at the head of the small fleet aboard Eret’s smaller, faster trapping vessel. His mother, Astrid, and the gang joined him, and it didn’t escape his notice that he wasn’t the only one hopefully scanning the skies as they sailed. Funny, that the last time the ships of Berk had set out looking for dragons, they were intent on destroying them. Now, they just wanted to save them.

Maybe the world had not changed enough, but it _had_ changed, and that gave him something to hold on to.

 

A hush fell over the normally rambunctious group as they docked at their old home. It was strange to see it so quiet, the open doorways peering like empty eyes from the hillside. In all his life, Hiccup had never seen Berk this way. Even after the houses burned down, even when his father had taken most of the adults out to search for the Nest, the village had never been _still_. Now it was, and that more than anything made him realize that it was no longer _home_.

Near the Great Hall, where his house had been turned into a pile of charcoal and ash, the statue of Stoick gazed silently over the empty settlement. Hiccup stared up at the solemn visage of his father and sent him a silent apology for failing to protect their ancestral home. Then he turned, and addressed the many pairs of expectant eyes waiting for him. “All right, everyone. Spread out, but stay in teams. I don’t want anyone out there alone in case there are raiders or looters lurking around. Focus on grabbing anything we need on New Berk — some sentimental items are fine, but we only have so much space on the ships. Useful stuff first. We get what we need, then we have what we want.”

Progress was… slow. Part of it was simply getting used to haul things with your hands again since there were no dragons to do the carrying for you. Part of it was the nostalgia, people lingering in their old homes, running their hands over the carvings or the weave of their tapestries as they folded them up as small as possible for easy transport. And then part of it was simply wariness, for every home had to be carefully inspected for squatters before any proper work could be done.

Still, by the time evening fell, there were a good number of organized piles down by the docks, with personal items sorted away from the supplies that would be used for the entire village. With darkness falling, everyone headed to the Great Hall for one final meal.

Astrid waited for Hiccup to show before starting to eat, and when the stew started to get cold she stood from the table to go looking for him, strapping her axe to her back just in case. She didn’t have to go far, alerted to his presence by faint lamplight and noise coming from beside the great statue of Stoick the Vast. Sure enough, there was her wayward boyfriend, who seemed to have found a intact slab of rock that hadn’t yet been used for construction. He was crouched at his father’s feet, methodically chiseling runes into the rough surface, and was so engrossed in the task that he didn’t immediately register her presence.

She quietly slipped back into the hall only to return with a bowl of stew and some bread. He startled a bit when she set them down beside him, before relaxing and smiling up at her. “Thanks, Astrid.”

“What are you up to?” She crouched down next to the slab, batting the chisel out of his hand when he tried to start working again. “Nah-uh. Food first.”

He chuckled, capturing her hand and kissing it briefly. “As my lady commands.”

The message on the stone was mostly finished, and Astrid ran her fingers over it as she read.

_This was Berk._

_Here, Vikings and dragons lived together in peace._

_Its people are gone, but not lost._

_Its dragons are gone, but not lost._

_Do not think us defeated._

“A bit confrontational, for you,” she murmured.

He shrugged, ripping up a chunk of bread and dipping it into the broth. “I know what people will think when they come here and find it like… this. I just…”

“Don’t want them getting the wrong idea.”

“Yeah.” He chewed thoughtfully for a moment. “And I feel like if Berk is forgotten, then…” he looked up at the looming face of the statue above them, “…then it’s like forgetting _him_.”

Astrid followed his gaze, and then nudged him with her shoulder. “We’re not going to forget him. You know that’s what he’d care about.”

“I know, but _I_ care about this. It just doesn’t feel right to leave it.”

She didn’t argue. She didn’t want to, either. Astrid had lived her whole life devoted to Berk, but her identity hadn’t been as tied to the location as Hiccup’s had. The Berk of the last few years had been _Hiccup’s_ Berk, unlike anywhere else, and she knew how much it hurt him to let the dream go.

“Well, at least after this you can get some re—” she was interrupted by Hiccup raising a hand for silence, back stiff as he gazed towards the side of the village, past the bridge to where the tree line began. Astrid took his cue and went quiet, straining her eyes and ears for anything out of the ordinary. 

When another few moments passed without incident, she spoke up, keeping her voice low. “What is it?”

“I thought I saw a light. Like a torch, or something.”

“You think it could be one of ours still outside?”

“Maybe. Did you notice anyone missing at dinner?”

“Yeah, you.”

“Okay, _besides_ me.”

“No, but I didn’t exactly take attendance or anythi— look!” Her words ended in an urgent hiss as a glow appeared between the distant trees, faint but definitely noticeable. 

Hiccup didn’t take his eyes from it. “Can you go inside and make sure everyone’s there? Otherwise…”

“Got it. Don’t do anything stupid until I’m back.” 

In the dark, she heard more than saw the smile in his voice. “I’ll try.”

Astrid rushed back into the hall, and made a quick mental tally in her mind. She knew exactly how many people had come along with them, and even with a bunch of boisterous Vikings it didn’t take too long for her to determine that with the exception of Hiccup, everyone had shown up to eat. She made her way over to Valka, and when she got her attention nodded her head towards the door, indicating for her to follow. The idea was to not get the entire crew to catch on, but when Valka stood to go, so did Snotlout, which then prompted the rest of the gang into motion.

Astrid held her finger to her mouth and gave them all her best glare, which cowed them into momentary quiet but didn’t stop them from following. She sighed and made her way back outside. It was just as well. If there was trouble, they might need the backup. When she made it back to Hiccup, he was staring, spine rigid, past the bridge. His expression that told her that if she had taken only a few moments longer, he would have been gone. 

“It’s a dragon,” he said as soon as she came up behind him, not bothering to turn his head to check who it was. “I heard it, it sounds like it’s scared—”

Right on cue, a distinctive shriek pierced the night, followed by another orange glow. 

Valka stepped up to join them, gripping her staff tightly. “A Timberjack, sounds like.”

“And it’s not alone,” Astrid murmured, as the din of shouting voices reached them.

“Trappers. Has to be,” Hiccup said, moving to attach Inferno to his waist, along with the new traditional sword he had recently forged. Due to losing the source of Zippleback gas, Inferno was now only to be used for dragon communication, and Astrid had been making sure Hiccup had kept up practicing with his new weapon. “They knew the dragons would come back here. We have to hurry!”

“Right.” Astrid glanced back at the gang. “Keep quiet. We need to take them by surprise. Remember, we don’t have our dragons to cover for us anymore.”

“Like we could forget,” Snotlout muttered, but he and the others followed her command readily enough.

As it turned out, a sneak attack was out of the question. The two factions collided in spectacular fashion, as the panicked Timberjack burst from the woods, careening towards the village in a desperate bid for safety. Its left wing was torn in several places, leaving a trail of blood in its wake and making it immediately apparent as to why it didn’t simply fly off. The dragon’s approach was painful to watch — some dragons were simply not built for running on land, and Timberjacks fell firmly onto that category. Their enormous wings were a hindrance when not in the air, even more so when every step dragged the ragged edges of open wounds against the ground. 

The pursuers were not far behind, bearing chains and hooks that were no doubt the cause of the dragon’s injuries. The Timberjack barreled towards the bridge, and the Berkians raced to meet it. 

Astrid prided herself on being prepared for any scenario. She was strong, fast and adaptable. Her reflexes had gotten her out of many a sticky situation in the past, and as she ran beside Hiccup towards the oncoming fight, she felt no fear, only a firm determination. Exhilaration carried her under the dragon’s flailing wing, avoiding the razor-sharp edges, and straight towards the trappers on its tail. She brought down the first, a burly man with an uneven sandy mustache, before twisting to trip the next with her axe handle. A grappling hook sailed past her head, sinking into the Timberjack’s flank and eliciting a panicked screech and an instinctive burst of flame. 

She dodged the blast, her body long accustomed to maneuvering around frightened dragons, leaving the bridge to take the brunt of the attack. The chain snapped taut, and the dragon screamed again as it was dragged back across the burning planks. The wing that Astrid had managed to avoid the first time caught her now, a glancing blow that tossed her against the burning railing. She was able to cling to it for only a moment before a combination of the flames and the weight of a hysterically thrashing dragon caused the bridge to come apart. 

The wood splintered under her feet, and she didn’t even have time to cry out before she was falling into the smoky darkness.

 

Hiccup didn’t hear the yells of his friends, the shouted warnings. He didn’t hear his mother’s voice, normally so rich and lyrical, rise to a panicked wail of his name. He didn’t see her and Eret lurch towards him, reaching out only to be cut off by yet another crash of a scaly wing, trapping him inside the chaos. 

The Timberjack had managed to pull itself up onto the ledge, but there was no sign of blonde hair or glinting armor with it. The burning pieces of the bridge had fallen down onto the old dragon hangar below, setting it aflame as well. It was near impossible to see through the dust and the smoke, making scaling the rugged slope down to the wreckage a deeply reckless endeavor.

Not that Hiccup was capable of caring. 

_No. No, no no. Not her. Not her._

No other thoughts were capable of penetrating through the fog. His ears were ringing, his lungs burned as though he could not get enough air. He was barely even aware of how quickly he was moving, sliding down dirt and rock, scaling debris and broken timbers with a dexterity and swiftness he rarely had without the aid of his dragon. Some of the beams were still smoldering brightly, but if they burned him as he scrambled across, he couldn’t feel it. Nor could he feel the tears rolling down his cheeks from eyes stinging from the smoke, or smell the acrid scent of his singed hair.

Those things didn’t matter.

Only one thing did.

_Not her!_

His singleminded rampage was hampered by the thick haze, smoke mingling with the dust raised by the collapse. He called her name over and over, ignoring the burning in his throat and the ash in his mouth. A creeping sense of loss started to creep in, and he shoved it aside angrily. It wasn’t possible. It wasn’t. It couldn’t be.

Suddenly he froze, a faint sound reaching him through the chaos. A sharp, metallic ‘thunk’ — first one, then another. 

Slowly, slowly, she appeared through the haze, coming into focus like waking from a dream. And for a moment, that’s all he feared it was — that his fear and desperation had taken physical form, and that he had finally, after so much loss, gone mad. If that were the case, he couldn’t bring himself to fight it. 

But then he saw the blood on her face, the ash in her hair, the way her left arm hung limp at her side. She swung her axe with the other, clearing a path as best she could as she stumbled towards towards safety — towards _him_. 

All of a sudden, he could breathe again — but it was too quick, too much at once, and when he tried to call her name, it caught in his throat and all that emerged was a strangled cry. 

It was enough to stop her in her tracks, and she looked up, peering through the smoke. When she saw him, her eyes widened, the already vivid blue looking impossibly more so in contrast to the grime on her skin. “Hiccup?!”

He leapt forward, pulling her into his arms like it would be his last chance. She gasped and barely had time to drop her axe to keep from injuring him, hissing softly as he jostled her bad arm. Hiccup held her as tight as he could manage, pressing so close as though to merge them permanently into one. He buried his face in her neck and took his first breaths that weren’t just ash and smoke — he inhaled the scent of her skin, her hair, trembling as the adrenaline began to leave his body.

Astrid raised her good hand to rub soothingly at his back, returning the embrace as best she could. “Hiccup? Are you okay?”

Hiccup breathed out harshly, keeping his face tucked under her jaw. “Marry me.”

He hadn’t even registered what he’d said until she stiffened in his arms, and he heard her inhale sharply. That, more than anything, snapped him back to reality, and he jerked his head up to meet her eyes. “I— sorry, Astrid, I just— that’s not how I meant to— _please_.”

She just stared at him for a moment, before giving him a quick once-over. “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Hiccup.”

He took a deep breath, and then actually took the time to pay attention to his body. Scrapes from his quick descent, muscles that would no doubt punish him later, stinging lungs and eyes from the smoke. “Really, I’m okay. But you aren’t! Your arm…” 

When he moved to touch it, she stopped him. She spoke softly, gently, as though to a skittish dragon. “It’s okay. I don’t think it’s broken, just out of place.” Behind her, another part of the hangar collapsed with splintering crash. “We should get out of here.”

Together they stumbled along the path towards the stairs, not able to get back up the same way that they had come down. With his heart rate starting to calm, Hiccup’s anxiety began to set in. 

“Astrid, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have just sprung that on you, I know you said you don’t want to—”

“Hiccup.”

“Especially now, and you’re _hurt_ , I’m such an—”

_“Hiccup.”_

He finally stopped, lifted his head and blinked at her mutely. She was smiling. 

“I was already planning on a winter wedding.”

His jaw dropped. “I— what— you _were_?”

“Yep.”

“But, I thought— I thought you didn’t _want_ to get married.”

She looked at him incredulously. “When did I say that?”

“When we talked about it!”

“I said we weren’t _ready_ , not that I didn’t _want_ to!”

“You— oh.” And here he thought he was getting steadier on his feet. She was always skilled at taking the rug out from underneath him, when she wanted to.

Astrid couldn’t help herself and laughed. “You’re an idiot,” she sighed, but softened the words with a fond kiss, leaning their foreheads together. “Come on.”

They continued upwards, Hiccup providing her with as much support as he could during the climb to keep from jostling her injury too much. “So, uh. When were you going to tell _me_ about the wedding plans?”

“When you finally got enough sleep. Why, were you going to say no?”

“I— of course not!

“That’s what I thought.”

When they finally made it back up to the main plaza, Valka was the first to spot their approach. She dropped her staff and raced towards them, first taking her son’s face in her hands and kissing his cheeks, and then turning to press a kiss into Astrid’s hair. She looked shyly pleased at the affection, and let go of Hiccup’s hand to steady her arm. 

After a brief examination, Valka concurred with Astrid’s diagnosis, and ushered the both of them back to the hall so that she could be treated. Along the way, they spotted Fishlegs sitting next to the now considerably calmer Timberjack, inspecting and cleaning its injuries. Nearby, Snotlout and the twins stood guard over several singed and tied up trappers. Hiccup let out a relieved sigh at the sight, and Astrid knocked her shoulder against his affectionately. 

“See? It’s good we came here after all.”

When Hiccup looked at her, his eyes were briefly clouded with a grief she had seen him wear before, and had hoped to never see again. She stopped walking. Valka glanced back to see what was keeping them, but quickly continued on to give them some space. 

“Hey,” she murmured, stepping in close. “I’m okay.”

“I know,” he replied quickly. “I know. It’s just, for a while—”

For a while, he _didn’t_ know. And that was a reality he couldn’t accept. He lifted a hand to wipe some of the blood from her face, and she leaned into his touch, not breaking eye contact. “I’m not going anywhere.”

His expression said _You can’t promise that_ , and hers said _Watch me_. Finally he softened, and kissed her forehead. “Can’t argue with you. Come on, lets get that arm taken care of.”

“Only if you agree to get looked at too.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeey, so. I'm really sorry about the delay. I really wanted to get this out earlier, but I have a chronic illness and it has been getting in my way constantly. I have to spend the next week getting all sorts of medical procedures done, so I really wanted to get this out to you guys before heading to the hospital tomorrow, even if I'm not happy with it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy regardless!
> 
> And again, thank you so much to all those who commented. You're the reason this is still going.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is where the rating goes up! If you're not interested in wedding night shenanigans, might want to skip it.

_We shake with joy, we shake with grief.  
What a time they have, these two  
housed as they are in the same body._

— Mary Oliver

 

“Try and relax, dear.”

“I _am_ relaxed,” Astrid retorted, but it was less than convincing when delivered from between clenched teeth. Valka continued to gently rotate her dislocated arm, testing the muscles. “Would you just put it back, already?”

Hiccup squeezed her good hand, having stationed himself on her other side. “She could permanently damage your arm if she’s sloppy,” he murmured, trying at reassurance. “There’s no rush.”

“Says the one with all his bones still in place,” she bit out.

“Well, not _all_ of them.” He nudged her leg playfully with his prosthetic. She made a face, but began to relax when he started rubbing slow circles on her back. “Come on, you know you need that arm.”

“I’m sure I can train my left to— _aah!_ ” Astrid gasped and went rigid as Valka took advantage of her distraction and quickly leveraged the joint into place. She grabbed at her shoulder, swearing under her breath. “You couldn’t give me a little warning?”

“It works best when someone isn’t expecting it,” came the response, wholly unrepentant. Valka batted Astrid’s hand away so she could feel around the bones, making sure everything was indeed in place. “That should be it settled. Hiccup, will you please hand me those wrappings?”

Hiccup stood with a peck to Astrid’s cheek, handing the cloth to his mother and helping hold the arm still against her chest as it was wrapped up in a sling. 

“Now, I shouldn’t have to tell you not to try and use it until it heals, do I?”

“ _No_ , you don’t,” Hiccup hummed.

The look Astrid shot him was only mildly venomous. “Don’t you have a dragon to fuss over?”

His expression immediately sobered, and he leaned in. After what had just happened, how could she…? “Astrid…”  


She stayed quiet for a moment, and then heaved out a sigh and offered him a weary smile. “I know, I know. Go on.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. There’s a lot to do, and I’m not going to be much use.”

Hiccup pressed a final kiss into her hair, returned his mother’s reassuring smile and headed back into the night. It was much darker now that the flames had been extinguished, though the air still hung heavy with smoke. 

Fortunately, the Timberjack was recovering nicely under Fishlegs’ supervision. Hiccup approached the dragon slowly, making sure it saw him coming. When it didn’t react to his proximity, he reached out and ran his hand along the muzzle, up towards the horns. “Hey there, big guy. You’ve had a rough day, huh?”

The dragon huffed through its nostrils, blinking slowly. It was clearly exhausted, and though Hiccup’s heart clenched at the thought of how long it may have been trying to flee while wounded, he knew it was an advantage to them when it came to providing treatment. 

“Just relax,” he crooned, scratching lightly at the base of one horn. “You’re safe now. We’ll take care of you.” 

It gave another weary huff, and then closed its large amber eyes completely. Fishlegs had trimmed the ragged, dirty edges of the wound and was in the process of stitching the clean flesh back together. He waved Hiccup over, being careful to not jostle the wing too much. “Hey, Hiccup. How’s Astrid?”

“She’s fine.” He leaned over, inspecting the sutures. “Her arm isn’t broken, thank the gods. Mom put it back into place. She can’t use it for a while, but, for how far she fell…”

Fishlegs didn’t press, just smiled a tad awkwardly. “Bet she’s grumpy about that. That’s her axe arm.”

Hiccup forced a laugh. “Yeah, well. Don’t make the mistake of thinking she can’t still do damage, even without it.”

“Who do you think I am, Snotlout?” Shaking his head, Fishlegs turned back to his stitching. “I never make _that_ mistake.”

Hiccup left him to his work, spotting Eret hovering nearby, clearly waiting to speak to him.

“Hey, Chief. How is she?”

“She’ll be fine. Just needs to take it easy,” he said, a wry twist to his mouth. Eret echoed it knowingly. Over the past couple of years, Hiccup had come to greatly appreciate the former trapper’s presence in their tribe. He was perceptive, reliable and had proven to be a useful confidante for both himself and Astrid, especially give their more… eccentric peers.

“What do you want us to do with these vermin?” Eret asked, jerking his chin back towards where the attackers were tied up, still being menaced by the twins. Hiccup frowned, tamping down on the urge to just keep them bound and toss them into the ocean at the earliest opportunity. They had been hunting dragons, they had almost _killed Astrid_ , and the mere memory was enough to make his jaw tighten enough to hurt. But he waited for the feeling to pass, and let out a breath. Eret watched him patiently, giving him the time he needed to sort out his thoughts.

“…Did you find their ship?”

“Sure did, not far down. Captured a few stragglers, some wounded. Looks like the beast put up a good fight. Some of them definitely aren’t getting up again.”

Hiccup tried not to feel _too_ satisfied about that, but it did make his final decision easier. “Search them and their ship. Take any weapons, and maps, if they have them. When we leave, lead them out into the sea a ways, blindfolded, and leave them there.”

“You sure, Hiccup? All that’ll do is slow them down.”

“That’s all it needs to do. Hopefully, by the time they get re-oriented, re-armed, find a crew… the rest of the dragons will have found their way to the Hidden World.”

Eret shrugged. “You’re the boss.”

“Thanks, Eret.”

It didn’t take long the next day to get everything settled on the ships — including the Timberjack, who was lead on board by a group of people carrying ample bribes in the form of fish. The hunters’ ship was towed along, its crew bound in a miserable huddle below deck so they wouldn’t know what direction they had been taken in. 

Hiccup stood at the bow of Eret’s vessel, staring up at his father one last time, before turning his back on his old home.

* * *

The news of the impending nuptials was welcomed with enthusiasm by the denizens of New Berk, tears from Gobber and a lot of self-congratulations on the part of Tuffnut (“ _You_ had no part in this!”) It was set for mid-winter, as Astrid had suggested — winter was always the most difficult time for Vikings, with the harsh weather often making it impossible for them to hunt or fish. _This winter_ , the first without their dragons, would be particularly difficult. The wedding of their Chief would given them reason to celebrate, as well as ease the ache of missing their scaly family members. 

They had brought the Timberjack to New Berk to allow it time to recover safely (where it was fawned upon by dozens of eager helpers). The torn wing healed well, and after some test flights, they sailed it partway to the great waterfall and encouraged it to fly on. It was hard to tell if it got the message, but if it didn’t, then hopefully the other dragons would show it the way home.

And if Hiccup waited a bit too long, searching the horizon for a familiar black shadow, well. No one mentioned it.

* * *

Astrid sat by the fire, running her hands over the beautiful ermine cloak that was hung from her shoulders, fastened with Nadder-head medallions that her soon-to-be-husband had crafted himself. She had never owned anything so valuable, but marrying into the Chief’s family seemed to require some… pomp. 

‘Marrying into Chiefhood, really…’ she thought. Hiccup had insisted early on in the wedding planning that Astrid was not to be just “the Chief’s wife”, but _Chieftess_. There was little resistance, as it was merely making official what the entire village already knew. Hiccup and Astrid were a team, on equal footing, and they were all better for it.

Footsteps interrupted her musings, and Astrid turned and saw Valka, who carried a delicate crown of rockfoils in her hands. She set it carefully on young bride’s loose wheaten hair, which had been lovingly brushed out by her mother. “Nervous?”

Astrid smiled a little. “No. Should I be?”

“My son certainly is,” Valka replied, her features painted with clear amusement. 

“Of course he is.” Astrid rolled her eyes. “He overthinks everything. He’s probably come up with a dozen wild ideas about me changing my mind in the last five minutes.”

“At least,” her mother-in-law murmured, reaching to straighten the fur cloak.

“We’ve been together for seven years, I don’t know why he thinks I’m suddenly going to run _now_.”

“Stoick was much the same,” said Valka, letting her hands drop. “He always looked at me as though he could hardly believe I existed, much less that I was married to him.”

Astrid reached out, touching her arm gently. “…I’m sorry he couldn’t be here for this.”

Valka smiled despite the telltale sheen in her eyes. “As am I. But without what he did, today would not have been able to happen. I’m sure he prefers this outcome.”

She smiled back. “We won’t waste it.”

“I know, my dear. I know.”

* * *

She walked to the dais, her parents on either side. The entire village was gathered, quieter than she’d ever seen them, although the undercurrent of excitement was palpable. 

Astrid hadn’t lied when she spoke to Valka. She was perfectly calm, warm in her wedding cloak and a content smile fixed on her face. This was something she had known was coming for a long time. It was just a matter of waiting for Hiccup to be ready — she had wanted to marry someone who knew who he was, and didn’t require anyone or anything else in order to be himself. As doubtful as Hiccup had been, she’d known he would figure it out. Just… not _when_.

Of course, when she was younger, she had expected to never marry. If she didn’t die defending her village against dragons, there didn’t seem to be anyone she would be _willing_ to marry. And then there was Hiccup — in a way that seemed sudden, although he’d been there all along — her clever, determined, goofy boy. She had been able to share herself with him in a way she had never expected to be able to do with anyone… a way she hadn’t known she _could_.

She was marrying her best friend. Her partner. There was no room for fear in her… only a sense of _rightness_.

Astrid joined Hiccup on the dais, where he had been led by his mother and Gobber, the latter of which had gotten a head start on the tears. Hiccup appeared rather like he was about to vibrate out of his skin, but his eyes were bright and adoring as he looked at her, an unconscious smile on his face. She smiled back before taking a quick moment to check her clothes, adjusting the elaborate belt around her waist so it settled more easily. As she finished, Hiccup’s hands broke into her field of vision, and just like that the ceremony had started. She looked up to see him gazing at her, asking the same question he had been asking ever since the day she first kissed him in front of the entire village.

Always asking, never demanding. He did not move to grab hold of her, instead leaving his hands open, palms up. Even now, the choice was hers. Whatever her answer, he would accept it. 

A surge of affection overwhelmed her, and she placed her hands in his waiting ones, giving her answer with a small nod and a smile. The side of his mouth quirked up in that crooked grin she loved so much, the remaining tension in his face melting away to leave only joy and no small amount of awe. 

She wondered if he would ever stop looking at her as though she were a goddess made mortal.

Then, finally, the ceremony was over. They leaned in at the same time, and she reveled in the feeling of his smile against hers.

* * *

They undressed each other more quickly than usual — not because they were in a hurry, but because their wedding garments were so much simpler to remove than their normal leathers and armor. Neither had been able to stop smiling, and repeatedly veered off course with playful nuzzles, caresses and laughing kisses. 

They were no strangers to intimacy, and for this, their wedding night, Astrid was glad of it.

As they reach adulthood they had begun exploring their bodies together, spending many moments secreted away learning how to bring each other pleasure. The painful awkwardness had faded away as their understanding of one another grew. These days they rarely needed words to gauge each other’s reactions, so attuned were they to their bodies. All it took was a muscle tensing, a stifled cry, a furrowed brow. The language was clear to them.

Astrid remembered Ruffnut scoffing at her once for “settling so early” for Hiccup, when there were “options to explore”. It’s true she had never even considered being with anyone else. Not before Hiccup, and not since. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to have any regrets. She didn’t know if she would be able to find anyone else willing to speak their private language.

She doubted anyone else _could_.

Astrid felt Hiccup reach down and unhook his prosthetic, welcoming his weight as he transferred it to her. Early on, Hiccup had been too self-conscious to do such a thing so casually — it warmed her to see him so comfortable with it now, with letting himself be vulnerable and not shamed by relying on her for help. Before either of them had realized it, they had reached the bed and tumbled onto it in an ungraceful heap, neither wanting to let go for even a moment. She rolled them both so that he was underneath her, her hair falling around them in a gilded curtain and cutting them off from the rest of the world. 

He looked up at her in the molten firelight that filtered through the golden strands, that dazed, disbelieving smile still on his face. Astrid leaned down and brushed her lips against his lightly — once, twice, three times before he growled, lunging up to capture her mouth properly. She hummed with approval — oh, how long she had spent coaxing him to _take_ — and luxuriated in several long, deep kisses before pulling back. 

There were few positions that they didn’t enjoy, adventurous youths that they were. Astrid loved being spread out beneath him like one of his precious maps, those clever hands cataloguing every inch of her skin, learning just where to press and how to move to send her spiraling into ecstasy. She loved when it was as much sparring as sex, each of them trying to overwhelm the other, exploiting all of their gleefully exposed weak spots until they collapsed, shaking and breathless with laughter. 

Not long ago, they had stumbled upon something new — in one of their few, truly alone times together after Hiccup’s ascent into Chiefhood, when fear, grief and worry had settled heavily on his shoulders. She had wanted to take it from him, one way or another, and had dragged him out to a hidden spot on a nearby island just to keep him from the demands of the village for a short time. He had been preoccupied even there, until she had pinned him down underneath her and demanded he pay attention to _her_ and _only_ her, unless she said otherwise. His pupils had blown wide, and he had stared up at her in a daze, which she hadn’t hesitated to take advantage of. 

Hiccup had slowly taken her apart so many times, but that night she did it to _him_ , forcing his ever-fidgeting hands to still and his ever-working mind to quiet. He was _hers_ , and his pleasure was hers, too. When she finally sank down onto him, she didn’t rush towards climax. Instead she went slowly, working herself on him like the tide — building, building, and then just when his body began to go taut with release, stopping. At first he gasped and begged, but she drew him into slow, wet kisses, letting him calm before beginning all over again. Astrid couldn’t remember how many times she put him through the cycle, only that eventually he had gone limp, eyes dark and half-lidded, mouth slightly open, body completely surrendered to her. 

Unable to bear much more herself, she sent them both crashing towards completion, and oh… she had never seen Hiccup come so hard in his _life_. His cry was hoarse and ragged, as though sorely wounded, and his body was beyond his control. He shook violently, spasms running up and down his spine, hands scrabbling desperately at the dirt beneath him, teeth gritted against the waves of sensation. Instinctively she had draped her body over his, anchoring him with her weight and murmuring endearments, all while gasping through waves of her own, until his trembling finally stopped. When she pulled away to ask if he was okay, she was struck by what she saw — Hiccup was completely at ease, relaxation cloaking his limbs like a heavy blanket. The tension was gone, the worry-lines wiped from his face, his pupils large but clear. His lips were curved in a smile so peaceful, that if his eyes hadn’t been open, she might have thought he had fallen asleep.

They hadn’t done it since, but she hadn’t forgotten. She knew he hadn’t, either. And tonight — the night after they had promised themselves to each other in front of hundreds of eyes, and he was _still_ looking at her like he expected her to vanish at any moment… tonight, she had a point to make.

She ran her hands down his arms, pressing them into the furs at his sides and giving him a meaningful look. He raised an eyebrow in return, and mimed testing invisible restraints, letting her know he got the message. Rolling her eyes at his theatrics, she sat up atop him, curving her spine back and letting her hair tumble over her shoulders and chest.

The amusement in Hiccup’s expression didn’t last long, his face falling open and vulnerable as Astrid took her time. She started at his neck, kissing and nuzzling under his chin before moving down his chest and belly. Even now, she knew he was insecure about his body, even though he no longer tried to hide it from her. Her lips and hands brushed every inch of his skin, communicating that no other body could please her more, because it was _his_. Skipping the organ waiting hopefully for her between his thighs, she instead traveled down his legs and continued her careful study. One hand followed the lean muscle from ankle to knee, the other rubbed circles around his stump. She traced every old scar, not needing to look to know exactly where they were or where sensation was heightened or lessened, having committed every bump and ridge to memory.

Occasionally Hiccup would make small, helpless movements or low noises in the back of his throat. These only got worse when she once again hovered over his center, learning down to slide her cheek teasingly against his shaft. Every movement from him, no matter how small, made her still — a mild reprimand in every pause.

“This — this isn’t just supposed to be about me, milady,” he attempted to joke, but the strain in his breathing gave away his desperation. Astrid lifted her head to look at him, and without breaking eye contact, took him into her mouth. She reveled in his shocked gasp and the immediate tensing of his stomach muscles even as she again stopped, waiting him out. Hiccup gave a low whine at being held still in her heat, but he kept his hips obediently still, and she hummed around him in approval. 

This wasn’t a part she tended to spend a lot of time on — she enjoyed seeing the pleasure it brought him, and she didn’t _mind_ it, exactly, but she preferred being able to see his expressions. And the taste… well. It wasn’t her favorite. Hiccup, sweet Hiccup, never asked for or seemed to expect it, which was why, every once in a while, she liked to surprise him. (He, on the other hand, could work his mouth between her legs for _hours_ and not tire of it. A pulse went through her at the thought, and she pushed it to the back of her mind. Later.)

The cry he let out when she finally sank onto him was sharp and near-alarmed, as though she had punched it from his chest. Astrid circled her hips, enjoying the feel of him seated inside her as she ran her fingertips up his sides, appreciating the tension in his muscles. Back and forth, back and forth, speeding up and slowing down, letting him get close but never quite letting him get far _enough_. Her legs were strong from years of dragon riding and she held herself easily, precisely controlling her rise and fall as she drove her new husband out of his mind. 

After several near-climaxes, she took one of his hands and brought it between her legs. He got the message immediately, pinching and pressing and heightening her pleasure the way he knew she liked it best until the sensation coalesced into a sharp point and she gasped, hips finally losing their rhythm as she rode out the waves. Underneath her, Hiccup was watching like a man dying of thirst, his other hand having risen to her hip and leaving crescent nail-marks in her skin. When she regained herself, she pointedly put his arms back down and waited. He groaned softly, but didn’t fight.

Astrid took pity on him soon after, working herself up to the brink again before finally, finally increasing their speed to a punishing pace. Hiccup cried and thrashed and reached out, and she let him, allowing his hands on her back, in her hair, anywhere he could reach. When he came, he was quiet, his back arched and his mouth open on a silent wail. Astrid barely noticed her own orgasm, so caught up was she in the twist of his brow, the helpless trembling of his limbs, his desperate gasps for air. 

She held his shuddering form, anchoring him with her weight and gentling him with kisses. Tears slid quietly down his cheeks, but Astrid did not comment on them, instead whispering praise and love into his ear as he calmed. She didn’t know how many minutes had passed before he stirred in her arms, sighing into her neck as he lazily flexed each limb as though testing they still worked. She dug her fingers into his sweat-damp hair, scratching lightly at his scalp and enjoying the small sound of pleasure he gave in return. 

“I love you with every breath I have,” she whispered, not even realizing she was going to say it until it was out in the open. 

Hiccup tilted his head back so he could meet her eyes. He looked stunned, as though he couldn’t decide if he were dreaming or awake… but she was happy to see his face was relaxed, gaze clear and content. “Astrid… thank you.”

She smiled, face flushed from exertion and slight embarrassment. Sappiness was _not_ her thing. “For what?”

“For this. For— for marrying me.”

“Well then, thank _you_.”

He blinked, obviously bewildered. “For what?”

“For marrying _me_ , obviously.”

She could almost see the cogs turning in his brain as he tried to wrap his head around her words. Typical Hiccup. Astrid married him because she wanted to, not out of some weird sense of charity. Some day she hoped she’d succeed in convincing him that she was as glad to have him as he was to have her.

Well, baby steps. 

Hiccup let his head fall back onto her shoulder, burying his nose in the fall of her hair. “I’m going to get you back for that, you know.”

“I know,” she hummed, practically shivering with anticipation. “That was the idea. Well, part of it, anyway.”

He placed an open mouthed kiss on her neck, moving up to the corner of her jaw to nuzzle under her ear. “Not right now, though. I don’t even think I can stand.”

“It’s fine. We have the rest of our lives, after all.” Astrid punctuated the last word with a squeeze, tucking them so close they were more one form than two. 

Hiccup froze, prompting her to pinch his rear, making him yelp. “What, did you forget that’s what marriage means?”

“Wha— no!” He rubbed at the offending spot, attempting to grumble but still too dazed with happy realization to pull it off. “Ugh. I can’t think.”

“You’re welcome,” she teased, and granted him the kiss he sought. “Nap before revenge?”

“Deal,” Hiccup yawned, lifting a hand to curl in the hair at her nape before letting his eyes fall closed. Astrid settled in with him, warm and pleasantly exhausted, yet eagerly anticipating what he’d have in store for her in the morning.

In the morning, and every day after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so sorry for the delay. When I got out of the hospital, I promptly fell and broke both my arms. Let me tell you, writing with two broken arms is a difficult venture. I have also had more medical procedures and unfortunately my health is still causing problems.
> 
> And I knew I wanted a love scene in this chapter, but also, I'm no good at writing them, so. It was a bit of a slog for me. I sincerely hope you enjoy it nonetheless! Thank you for reading, and double thank you to those who left comments. The comments mean a great deal to me, and are very motivating.
> 
> This fic is not over. I have Plans for the future, provided I can get my shit together. Ha!

**Author's Note:**

> I have not written in a very long time, and I kept telling myself that this wasn't worthy of sharing, but you know what -- I love these kids and I want to explore their future. So I'm posting this and getting on a plane so I can't do anything about it, haha! 
> 
> I intend to have this fic go up to the epilogue and perhaps beyond that, provided I can motivate myself enough.
> 
> You can hit me up on tumblr if you ever want to talk HTTYD or just... be an animation nerd, that's cool too.


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